Monroe High School student Nicole Roof said her mother and stepfather were heroin addicts so she spent much of her childhood in foster care.

“I was always hopping from house to house,” she said from a stage before an audience of hundreds. “I don’t want to see anyone else go through what I had to grow through while growing up.”

St. Mary Catholic Central High School student Alex Morgan lost a relative to a heroin overdose and called the drug ugly and horrible while Jefferson High School’s Ashley Waldecker told the audience about the effects of drugs on her family.

“I’ve watched people I love ruin their lives,” she said.

And Haylee Alexander of Dundee High School said a 2012 DHS graduate and baseball player died from a fentanyl overdose.

“This is a prime example of it can happen to anybody,” she said.

The students were among 28 representing each of the county’s high schools including Monroe Middle College who spoke during the fifth annual Drug Summit held Tuesday at the Monroe County Community College.

They and about 300 of their peers are members of the Student Prevention Leadership Teams (SPLT), a group of students who work together to try and spread the word about the dangers of drugs.

Bedford High School video, part 1:

“You are role models and leaders among your peers,” Jodi Brooks, SPLT coordinator, told the students as they stood on the stage in the Meyer Theater. “You’re showing them how to make smart decisions.”

The summit, an annual gathering aimed at addressing and combating the heroin and other drugs that continues to plague the community, was the brainchild of Monroe County Prosecutor William Paul Nichols. This is the last because all major aspects of prevention, awareness, medical and enforcement have been addressed during each of the annual events.

But that doesn’t mean the fight is over, officials acknowledged.

“This is the culmination of everything from the previous years,” said retired 38th Circuit Judge and former Chief Assistant Prosecutor Joseph A. Costello Jr. “This summit isn’t the only thing they do all year.”

The number of opioidrelated deaths in Michigan tripled from 622 in 2011 to 1,689 in 2016, Costello told the audience. The fight will not be won, he said, by law enforcement targeting the users. The dealers must be the focus and the dangers of opioids must be taught in the schools at an early age.

“We certainly need to get into schools,” Costello said. “We aren’t going to arrest our way out of this problem.”

The students of SPLT, which has grown in numbers annually and includes all the county’s high schools, vowed to continue spreading the word about drugs and how they ruin lives.

“I want to make a difference in the world,” said Jefferson’s Marissa Todd. “And it starts by making a difference in my school.”

“(SPLT) has better prepared me for the future,” added Whitney Wegener of Ida High School.

Bedford High School video, part 2:

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